The New York City subways are not, by any stretch of the imagination, wheelchair accessible. While new stations and those undergoing renovations must adhere to ADA regulations, the subway system is replete with staircases old enough to be grandfathered out of automatic ADA compliance. Not everyone is happy about this.
Enter Michael Harris and the Disabled Riders Coalition. Harris, 23 and a recent grad of Manhattanville College, is the executive director of a coalition of disabled and non-disabled riders who are advocating for a subway system more accommodating to those in wheelchairs and those with other disabilities.
While Harris is constantly working to monitor ADA compliance and accessibility in the subway system, every few months an accident comes along that tragically thrusts the Disabled Riders Coalition into the spotlight. This week, when a train at Penn Station struck and seriously injured a woman in a wheelchair, was one of those times.
Here’s what happened, courtesy of Newsday:
A woman was struck by a train and seriously injured after the back wheels of her electric wheelchair got stuck on the yellow studded area of a Penn Station subway platform, police said yesterday.
The Manhattan woman, 52, whom police did not identify, had just gotten off a No. 2 train Sunday evening when she turned her head to see why her chair was caught, witnesses told investigators. As the train pulled away, one of its cars struck her head, then another car hit her wheelchair, catapulting her from the chair and into a column, police said.
While NYCT officials were quick to note that they “heard other things” as well as this account, the agency is investigating. Ironically, the yellow edge with the raised studs is designed to keep all riders — but notably those with vision impairments — away from the edge of the platforms.
On Monday, Harris and his group led a news conference to draw some attention to this matter. “I myself on numerous occasions have been hit by a train and just knocked to the side a little bit. Sadly, in her case, it was much worse,” Harris said to Newsday.
The MTA, meanwhile, has plans to make 100 stations wheelchair-accessible within the next 13 years. Right now, just 61 of the system’s 468 stations are accessible. All of the stations along Second Ave. will be fully accessible and ADA compliant.
Now, I understand that it takes a long time to install elevator systems that run from street level to the turnstile plaza to the tracks. I also understand that, in many cases, the areas around train stations are simply too built up to fit in an elevator without some serious negotiating by the MTA. However, I would have to believe that it’s possible to make more than 39 stations accessible in 13 years.
It’s not easy to modernize and bring a 100-year-old subway system up to speed on ADA compliancy. But it should happen sooner rather than later.
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